(EN) Attention with self-medication!
Determining the role that drugs play as allergy generators is important, because fatal accidents due to ingestion without prescription of contraindicated drugs reveal that each time people come into contact with the same drug, the reactions are faster and more acute, limiting the ability for the patient to react positively.
You feel bad, you think you should go to the doctor, but instead you go to a pharmacy or call a friend or family member to suggest a medicine to relieve a simple headache or excruciating stomach ache. It happens that you possibly end up feeling worse and you don't know why
Cases like these are repeated daily. Exaggerated self-medication has its consequences, especially in people who are allergic or have some sensitivity. For example, asthma and other reactions that have to do with our immune system can not only be produced by climatic factors such as humidity, dust, insects or food, medications also play an important role in this chain.
Perhaps a certain respect has been lost regarding what it would imply, from an immunological point of view, to ingest medicines without a prescription or without a preventive check-up. However, many are the investigations carried out by specialists, the whole world has determined that "the misuse of a drug without a prescription can have irreversible consequences. In the case of asthma, one of the most common conditions, not only external agents the they produce but also some drugs.
Allergy versus intolerance
Not all adverse reactions produced by a drug are necessarily related to allergies. One reaction may be intolerance to the drug, and another, a purely allergic response; however, both are a mechanism of action of the body that is activated when the drug enters the body resulting in various reactions.
Specialists have pointed out that "for the individual to develop an allergic reaction to the drug they are taking at that time, they must present, in scientific terms, a predisposing factor to allergies from the genetic point of view. In other words, they must be allergic or sensitive to this type of drug '.
The opposite occurs when a drug is ingested and stomach irritation occurs that, in the long run, can turn into gastritis. "This particular case would not be an allergic reaction but an intolerance to the drug and its particular treatment would be to look for another drug, with similar chemical components, which may reduce the intolerance a little and help to continue the treatment.
The problem is exacerbated when people are unaware of their allergic history and do not know what they are dealing with. For example, the drugs that are known as anti-inflammatories, which are scientifically called NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), have generated many allergies in people who suffer from them and also in those who do not know if they are sensitive or not. "Ibuprofen, aspirin or dipyrone, although molecularly different, can generate an allergic reaction, not because the drug is counterproductive, but because the immune system of each human being reacts differently to any type of stimulant "
The problem is not in the drug, the worrying thing is the ignorance of the own reaction capacity. "Ultimately, this type of patient should be rigorously studied before any intake by means of provocation tests', avoiding self-medication in order to prevent greater evils".
In the face of self-medication, what specialists call cross reactions can also occur. This basically refers to the ingestion of a drug to which one is sensitized, which is why an allergic reaction occurs. Automatically, to counteract the effect, another drug is taken that is molecularly different but belongs to the same family, generating a faster and more severe reaction, which in some cases can be fatal. Hence the importance of consulting a specialist and avoiding self-medication.
Raise awareness helps
The indiscriminate purchase and ingestion of medications without a prescription is a problem and this is confirmed by allergy specialists. Currently it has been achieved that antibiotics are purchased only by patients who have their medical prescription. The branch of analgesics remains to be controlled even more, because "statistically the allergic reactions to analgesics and anti-inflammatories is greater".
At this time, groups of specialists are not only continuing to study the composition of DNA, but are also trying to design an educational campaign that helps raise awareness in allergic and non-allergic patients, encouraging them to undergo their tests, not self-medicate and always seek advice from the people who know.In some countries, this particular issue has already been remarkably controlled.
Specialists prescribe the exact dose for the duration of treatment and not all pain relievers can be purchased without a prescription. But others continue to work, educate and research. Perhaps they are focused on deepening these allergic reactions to drugs from a genetic point of view.
We must be aware of taking care of our health because everything depends on our ability to internalize the negative implications that it would have if we take lightly the uncontrolled intake of any medicine. We must become aware and lose our fear of doctors.
If we take care of ourselves, we avoid having reactions such as hives, bronchial asthma, glottis edema, in short, a number of crises as a result of the misuse of medications.
